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By Taimoor Shah &Alissa J. RubinTHE NEW YORK TIMES • Saturday January 25, 2014 8:03 AM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Noor Ahmad Noori, an Afghan interpreter who had worked for
The New York Times in Afghanistan, was found beaten and stabbed to death, wrapped in a
sack and dumped on a roadside late Thursday outside Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province,
where he lived, government officials and family members reported.

The relatives said Noori, 29, a well-known local journalist who was engaged to be married, had
been abducted by armed men earlier on Thursday and had been missing for nine hours.

There was no claim of responsibility for the killing, and it was unclear whether it was a
criminal or personal matter, or connected to the Taliban insurgency.

A spokesman for the governor of Helmand province, Omar Zwak, said yesterday that police had
found the body north of Lashkar Gah, and that Noori had been “beaten severely until he died.”

Noori’s elder brother, Rasiullah, said Noori also had multiple stab wounds on his head and body
and might have suffocated.

Police are investigating the case, and the Helmand governor promised journalists that the
government would release information as soon as the investigation was completed. Zwak pledged to “
find the culprits.”

Noori first went to work for
The Times in 2010. He left by mutual agreement early last fall. Noori also worked for
Bost, a local Helmand radio broadcaster.

He was well-known to many in the local government as well as to the civilians working with the
U.S. military mission there. Noori had worked with a number of news organizations.